I'm a computer geek, and am about to discard another cheap ionization smoke detector that has gotten too sensitive to put up with. Cleaning the little chamber didn't help much, though yes, that often worked in years past, on other units I've had.
Actually, I'm thinking of tweaking the sensitivity with unauthorized do-it-yourself circuit mods. I'll want to destroy the unit before I let it fall into another's hands, but I'll accept the increased risk of myself dying in a home fire that using such a device entails. Maybe I'll disguise it as an abstract sculpture or something, so nobody else would ever come to rely on it to detect smoke ;-)
But this brings up some issues;
a) how can I properly calibrate it, and later retest it, using actual smoke? Like using a measured amount of tobacco on a red-hot heater, and ducting that into a known volume trash bag or box... I've never seen this topic discussed, and wonder if the old TEST button is a credible witness of sensitivity, now that I think about it...
b) If this works out, should I ever admit it to my friends? We're all just a few degrees away from the most monstrously inept/stupid/deranged person one might ever envision, and I'd be enabling that "friend of a friend of a friend" to construct a passively hazardous device {or large assemblage of same.}
c) And why doesn't there seem to be any prior postings on this HOWto ? Do they get censored by somebody eventually? Sure, it may be to discuss in a public forum, from a strictly personal-legal-liability standpoint, but that wouldn't normally prevent the topic arising, judging from the blatantly unwise / illegal things I see out on the internet already. {Porno sites, prescription drugs offered by correspondance. Ech!}